About Us
Blu Designs is a BC, Canada based Design Studio operating between the interface of art and digital design to create surface patterns and illustrations for various industries with a special focus on cloth.
On our journeys and during the years we spent living in East African communities we have learned to value textiles and their tales as powerful tools. In many cultures textiles store memories and encourage meaningful interaction. Textiles are the weaving of stories, cultural knowledge, the holders of traditions and beliefs. Textiles mark time and memories, conversation and storytelling amongst their users. They are more than objects of consumption and are valued as family heirlooms and preservers of cultural heritage.
As independent artists we explore surface pattern as a means of interactive narrative, bringing our unique expression into the scope of textiles and interiors, book art and fashion design. We created Blu Designs to craft a life style that enables us to do what we love and share it with others.
The Artists
Marta was born and raised in Italy where she trained in classical arts. She moved to the UK to study at Chelsea College of Art and Design in London where she holds a Bachelor degree in Fine Art Painting (2004). During her studies she explored photography and a broad variety of techniques such as silk screen printing to integrate and layer images into her paintings.
For several years she participated in rural community projects on the East African coast where she explored the interdependence between people and the land, particularly through land management, craft and medicine. After various work experiences in museum archives and invaluable internships at the Royal Botanical Gardens of Kew Herbarium, she pursued further academic studies in Ethnobotany with an undergraduate in Ecology Monitoring and Conservation at Cambridge University, UK in 2014. She moved to Canada BC in 2017 and co-founded Blu Designs in 2024. All her designs are based on her photography archives, drawings, and her surroundings.
Marta’s work explores the space between intricate and minimal, complex yet utterly simple. She juxtaposes bold and organic, geometric and delicate, always with a feel for fluidity of mark, texture and hand drawn expression. As the patterns unfold in the endless interdependence of lines and colours meeting each other they invoke a sense of timeless intrigue.
Marion holds a Bachelor degree in Fine Art Painting from the London University of the Arts (2007) and a Masters degree in ‘Sustainable Design’ from Brighton University in the UK (2016). She spent several years living and working in small East African settlements where she participated in community development and heritage projects. In a remote village in Southern Mozambique she worked closely with a group of women on developing textile products with print fabrics and recyclable materials to create additional income opportunities for their families.
During her time abroad she deepened her art explorations by incorporating local motifs and the vibrant colours of East Africa. She started using African print fabrics to replace canvas in her paintings and became fascinated with their motifs and designs. Her Master thesis focused on print fabrics as a tool for cultural sustainability and the preservation of cultural heritage. After moving to Canada in 2017 she decided to return to a full time professional life of art and design, co-creating Blu Designs with Marta Castiglioni in 2024.
Marion’s work conveys a sense of humour and a playfulness of motifs that invite conversation. Her patterns are often whimsical and evoke a subtle curiosity to look closer and discover what is being seen. Colour is an important aspect of her work and she often incorporates colour collages into her digital repeat patterns.